Crush List: Top 99 Women 2016

Crush.Noun. (\ˈkrəsh\) Someone you have a crush on. The object of one's interest. Someone you can't stop thinking about. Ex: Damn, I have such a crush on her.

Crush.Verb. To kick ass at something; to own it, dominate it, ace it. Ex: Damn, did you see that? She totally crushed it.

Crush List: Noun.A collection of 99 incredible women who kick so much ass at what they do that we can't stop thinking about them. Ex: Did you see the AskMen Crush List? What a bunch of boss-ass babes, stars, pros, and geniuses.

Every year AskMen takes a look at the women who impress our readers the most. We had a lot of fun with last year's Top 99 Most Outstanding Women list; but now it's time for the Crush List.

After we launched the voting phase in March, frenzied fans voted so many times they actually crashed the site. Well, we're finally ready to show the world who the most crushingest women are. Check it out.

Olivia Wilde

Actress, model and producer Olivia Wilde has been in the spotlight steadily since her recurring role in House. Wilde has gone beyond the role of an actress by taking after her award-winning journalist parents through her work with the documentary short Body Team 12. Wilde is also a board member on Artists for Peace and Justice, which provides education and health services in Haiti and is a part of Gucci's "Chime for Change" campaign, which raises awareness of women's issues in education and health. Wilde can currently be seen in HBO's Vinyl, or heard revealing the pick-up line that Jason Sudeikis used to win her heart.

FACT: The late journalist Christopher Hitchens used to babysit Olivia Wilde.

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Krysten Ritter

She appeared in Breaking Bad, Veronica Mars and Gossip Girl, but most recently, Ritter has taken on a brand new case. You'll recognize her as moody, ass-kicking superhuman Jessica Jones in the eponymously titled Netflix show. Her unsettling and emotionally stirring performance as a hard-drinking private eye instantly made Jessica Jones one of the most complex and compelling hero stories in the entire Marvel universe.

FACT: Krysten Ritter was discovered at her local mall when she was shopping with her mom by a modeling agency.

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Michelle Jenneke

Best known for being the Australian dynamo who brought her country home a silver medal for the 100m hurdles at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics, she gained international attention for her awesome 2012 warm-up routine, which involved dancing and went viral overnight. Now, Jenneke inspires others to be fit on her Instagram, with over 165,000 followers, and will compete in the Rio Olympics this summer after qualifying earlier this year.

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Jessica Lucas

You may recognize Lucas from crime drama Gracepoint, historical disaster movie Pompeii, or for her short-lived runs on the Melrose Place and 90210 relaunches. She also appeared on the silver screen in The Covenant, Cloverfield and the Evil Dead remake. The Canadian actress now has a recurring role in the DC Universe, appearing in Gotham as the whip-wielding villain Tigress. And luckily, we'll be able to see more of her: Season 3 of Gotham is officially going to happen.

FACT: Jessica Lucas began acting at only 7 years old.

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Allison Stokke

Pole vaulter Allison Stokke got a lot of unwanted attention when, at the age of 18, a photo of her at a track meet went viral. Internet audiences obsessed over her looks, said a lot of creepy, stalker-ish things, and generally ignored Stokke’s athletic ability — despite the fact that her pole vaulting won her a scholarship to the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied sociology. Stokke never gave up on her love for the sport, though, and managed to turn the unwelcome fame into a good thing: Last year had her modeling for Athleta and Nike, and her promotional videos for GoPro have gained over 6 million views.

FACT: Allison Stokke holds a number of American records for vaulting at the high school level.

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Arika Sato

YouTube, TV and social media star Arika Sato has generated a big following with her beauty, fashion and fitness how-to videos and general lifestyle advice. Her passion for the digital world goes way back: She got her first computer in the first grade and became instantly hooked. She continued to expand her content producing skills, studying communications and broadcast journalism before working as a TV host. From shopping hauls to unboxings, her YouTube videos give fans a glimpse into her #GLAMLIFE. Last year, she was part of BeautyCon LA, which brought together online beauty educators from around the world. With all the planet’s contouring experts gathered under one roof, Sato was the hands-down standout.

FACT: Raised by parents who immigrated from Japan to the USA, Arika Sato speaks fluent Japanese.

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Victoria Beckham

At one point, she was deemed that classy Spice Girl who ended up on David Beckham’s arm, but Posh Spice has proven to have far more depth than that. She’s worked hard to establish herself in the fashion industry and now she’s an influential businesswoman in the realm. From eyewear, to clothing lines, to a hot-ticket bi-annual show at New York Fashion Week, she’s successfully won over a tough crowd. And she’s especially won us over by bringing attention to a number of causes, like fighting the fur industry and raising money for AIDS. She has also recently been named World's Best Dressed Traveller by British Airways — better dressed than even Amal Clooney and Kendall Jenner.

FACT: Victoria Beckham lost the role of Lara Croft in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider to Angelina Jolie in 2001.

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NERVO

Musicians, songwriters, models, and DJs. That’s NERVO; what are you doing with your life? The Australian sisters are successful multitaskers, but music is how Mim and Liv have made their name. They started their careers ghostwriting for stars like Kylie Minogue and Kesha.Their peak achievement so far was co-writing the Grammy Award-winning single “When Love Takes Over,” performed by David Guetta and Kelly Rowland. At last check, the YouTube video has just shy of 105 million views. They continue to DJ live events and work with stars like Armin van Buuren, and while EDM remains a male-dominated field, NERVO have solidified themselves as two of its top-earning females.

FACT: After their mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, NERVO launched the #tittiestittiesyeah campaign to raise awareness of the disease.

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Tatiana Maslany

Since 2013, Canadian actress Tatiana Maslany has occupied the leading role(s) in sci-fi series Orphan Black, in which she plays many clones of herself — but they each have unique accents, body language and personalities. That sounds exhausting for an actor, but it doesn’t seem to be wearing her out: Maslany is slated to appear in 2016’s drama Two Lovers and a Bear, and will star opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in 2017’s Stronger, which is based on the events of the Boston Marathon bombing.

FACT: In order to fully capture the Orphan Black clone characters’ essence — how they move, especially — Maslany assigns an animal to each.

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Tia Blanco

Tia Blanco is making major waves in the surfing world. She won the Under 18 Women’s Surfing season in 2014, and last year snagged a gold medal at the International Surfing Association World Games in Nicaragua. She’s also a brand ambassador for Reef surf apparel, and posed for Playboy late last year. Blanco attributes some of her success to a healthy lifestyle: She is an outspoken vegan, prefers raw food and has even appeared in ads for PETA.

FACT: To those who question her low-protein diet, Blanco points out that she has won many arm-wrestling matches against dudes.

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Sydney Leroux

Canadian-American pro soccer player Sydney Leroux helped the United States grab gold at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup, and currently fills a role as forward for FC Kansas City in the National Women’s Soccer League. She got her semi-professional debut playing for the Vancouver Whitecaps at age 15 — the youngest person to ever play for the team. She was also the youngest member of — and a goal-scorer for — the USA’s gold-winning team at the 2012 Olympics.

FACT: Sydney Leroux got her start playing little league baseball as a teenager.

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Rita Ora

British singer, actress and magazine cover girl Rita Ora broke into the mainstream in 2012 with several hit songs, and last summer’s single “Poison” reached Top 5 on the UK charts. She also did a stint as judge on X Factor. She got her break on the big screen, playing Christian Grey’s sister in 50 Shades of Grey, and appeared in the boxing drama Southpaw. An immigrant herself, Ora delivered a speech on the Syrian refugee crisis at a 2015 event in London organized by Free the Children.

FACT: Rita Ora is fluent in Albanian and last year was named an honorary ambassador to the Republic of Kosovo.

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Elizabeth Olsen

The younger sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley, Elizabeth Olsen is her own person altogether. She’s got a knack for action roles, having appeared in Godzilla and Avengers: Age of Ultron. You can see her right now in Captain America: Civil War.Her acting chops, however, are by no means limited to blockbuster action-hero fare. Later this year, she plays country music legend Hank Williams’ wife and manager Aubrey in I Saw the Light. And come 2017, she’ll appear in the gritty FBI thriller Wind River.

FACT: Mary-Kate and Ashley’s fashion line, Elizabeth and James, is named after Olsen and her brother.

Taylor Pischke

Canadian pro volleyball player Taylor Pischke got her start playing in college for UCSB and later the University of Manitoba. She’s part of Canada’s national beach volleyball team — yes, there are beaches in Canada — and has brought in a pile of medals on the NORCECA Beach Volleyball Circuit, as well as helping her team take fourth at the 2015 Pan Am Games. Off the sand, she’s pursuing pre-med studies at the University of Manitoba.

FACT: Taylor Pischke's father, Garth Pischke, was an Olympic volleyball player for Team Canada back in the day. She cites him as an inspiration.

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Brooklyn Decker

She is probably best recognized for multiple appearances in Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue, and for her ongoing role in the Netflix hit Grace & Frankie. The Ohio native has a great sense of humor and isn't afraid to show it. A recent Twitter rant about getting stranded in an airport while pumping breast milk for her newborn, along with photos on Instagram of the “small butt crack” that formed on the back of her neck as a result of a wardrobe choice, have made Decker a hit on social media. Her acting career is ramping up, too. This year, she appears in the romantic drama Lovesong. When she's not busy killing it on TV and social media, she goes on expeditions to the Arctic with the Sierra Club.

FACT: Brooklyn Decker's aunt was born without a corpus callosum. Through her aunt's struggles, she became active in the Special Olympics of her hometown of Charlotte, and has gone on to become a global ambassador for the organization.

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Ana Ivanovic

Serbian pro tennis player Ana Ivanovic has seen her career go through ups and downs, but right now she is on the way up. Winning the 2008 French Open put a lot of stress on her, thanks to constant media attention, and her game suffered. But now she’s back, ranked 17th worldwide in women’s tennis. She can also boast about her career earnings, now in excess of $15 million. She returned to the French Open last year, and it was the first time in seven years that she made it to the semifinals of a major tournament. On the court this season, she will be showing off some of sponsor Adidas’ hottest new tennis wear.

FACT: When she lost her first match, at age 15, Ivanovic cried because she was afraid of being dropped by her management agency.

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Alexis Ren

At the age of 13, Alexis Ren was discovered in a Brandy Melville store, and she went on to launch her modeling career with the brand. Since then, she’s worked for brands such as Calvin Klein, Forever 21 and Victoria’s Secret, while amassing five million Instagram followers. And the Californian has tapped into her inner beach, making a name for herself as a swimsuit model: Her first runway walk, in 2014, was for Sahara Ray Swim, and she recently appeared bikini-clad in Surfing Magazine.

FACT: Alexis Ren is good friends with famous fashion photographer Bryant Eslava.

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Jack Novak

Jacqueline Novak — or Jack, as she’s better known — is one of the leading ladies in EDM culture. She’s self-taught and she’s done a pretty good job of it. She turned a computer, some software and a home studio into a gig as Pharrell’s touring DJ in 2013. Not bad. Vibe Magazine named her one of the Top DJs to watch in 2014 and now she has her own label, Power and Light Records. She’s shared the music stage with acts like Skrillex, Rihanna, Snoop Dogg and many others. Keep an eye on her as she continues to rise on the EDM scene.

FACT: Jack Novak decided to become a DJ when a friend asked her for a mixtape.

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Marcela Sapone & Jessica Beck

If you’ve never heard of Marcela Sapone or Jessica Beck, don’t fret; it’s Hello Alfred you should be interested in. Hello Alfred is essentially a personal butler service, in which you’re matched “with a carefully vetted Alfred who visits your home each week to handle your grocery shopping, laundry, home cleaning and more.” Both Beck and Sapone built the wildly popular app in hopes of simplifying the way people live, clean, work, and get things done. And it paid off. Since they took home the top prize, worth $50,000, at Tech Crunch Disrupt in 2014, Sapone and Beck's unique sense of entrepreneurship and unwavering commitment to bring people closer to the American dream have continued to grow Hello Alfred into a huge success.

FACT: Marcela Sapone and Jessica Beck met at Harvard Business School.

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Alana Blanchard

Proud Hawaiian Alana Blanchard is a professional surfer and model who has won five major surfing awards in both Hawaii and Spain. With over 1.5 million Facebook likes and 1.1 million Instagram followers, Blanchard is clearly a fan favorite — pretty easy to understand, given her mad surfing skills and girl-next-door looks. Blanchard also designs and models Rip Curl swimwear, a line of wetsuits specifically made for the surfing crowd, and has surfed on the ASP World Tour. Her Instagram and video presence shows the side of the surfing scene that makes it so appealing to the rest of the world and inspires the rest of us to throw down our briefcases and hit the waves.

FACT: Taught by her dad, Alana Blanchard first learned how to surf at the age of 4.

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Syd Wilder

With over 30,000 subscribers on her YouTube account, Syd Wilder knows how to get people to pay attention to her. Why? Because she’s f*cking funny and drop-dead gorgeous. Her secret ingredient to success is the way she spoofs and satirizes the “regular, pretty girl" in videos like "How To Take a Slutty Selfie" and "How To Be An Actress in L.A." while retaining the charm and grace of a veteran actor. Wilder is also a model who flaunts her girl-next-door looks on Instagram (she has nearly 200,000 followers) and shares her thoughts with her 30,000 Twitter followers.

FACT: Syd Wilder was offered a record deal at the age of 14, but turned it down to pursue acting.

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Samantha Hoopes

Model Samantha Hoopes had her breakthrough in 2014's 50th-anniversary edition of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, and has modeled for Levi’s Jeans and GUESS. But her most famous work was last year’s appearance in a Carl’s Jr. ad in which Hoopes chowed down on The Most American Thickburger while lounging in a hot tub in a bikini (in the back of a stars ‘n stripes pickup truck). Arterial plaque never looked so appealing.

FACT: Samantha Hoopes bit into more than 20 separate burgers for the Carl’s Jr. shoot to capture the most elegant chomping motion possible.

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Rashida Jones

It’s hard not to have great things expected of you when you’re the daughter of Quincy Jones, but Rashida has gone above and beyond and truly made a name for herself. After small parts in TV shows like Boston Public and The Office, Jones landed the role of Ann Perkins in Parks and Recreationand became a household name. The 40-year-old comic book author, film producer, singer, and screenwriter has appeared in more than a dozen movies, all while finding the time to pursue philanthropic endeavors such as fundraising for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Stand Up To Cancer. Following her father’s footsteps in the music world, she recently released a '90s-inspired music video for her "Flip and Rewind" song. Find her killing it on Angie Tribeca —a hilarious new show on TBS, created by the one and only Steve Carrell.

FACT: Rashida Jones graduated from Harvard University and was going to study law, if it weren't for the disastrous O.J. Simpson trial.

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Anastasia Ashley

Before moving to Hawaii in 1992, Anastasia Ashley learned to surf in her hometown of San Clemente, California. Barely a year later, she won a surf contest using a discarded surfboard she found by a trash can near her house. Since then, she’s won two National Scholastic Surfing Association championships and the professional surfing tour of America championship. Alongside her surfing, Ashley’s found the time to model for Sports Illustratedand Maxim and even appeared in an episode of Hell’s Kitchen, in which she taught the winners how to surf.

FACT: Anastasia Ashley won her first surfing competition when she was just 6 years old.

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Lily Collins

Lily Collins began her career at age 2 as a child actor in BBC’s Growing Pains. After some time off, Collins pursued a career as a journalist, penning the column "NY Confidential" in Elle Girl and writing for Seventeen, Teen Vogue and the Los Angeles Times. In 2009, her acting career picked up again when she appeared in The Blind Side. She steadily acted in two films a year since then. She was most recently cast in the Netflix film Okja, yet still finds time to serve as a celebrity ambassador of the anti-bullying organization Bystander Revolution.

FACT: Lily Collins loves to collect old antiques, and pretty much anything vintage she can get her hands on.

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Ellie Goulding

One voice you are always guaranteed to hear when you turn on the radio is Ellie Goulding’s. At the age of 24, Goulding won the BBC Sound of 2010 poll, which showcased some of the music industry’s top stars, then went on to open for U2 for two different tour dates, and participated in the Great North Run for the British Heart Foundation. In the six years since her debut, Goulding has collaborated with Major Lazer, participated in the Australian version of The X Factor, and performed at the Apple Music Festival. She's touring North America right now, in support of her latest album, Delirium, so get your tickets while they last.

FACT: Ellie Goulding sang at Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge's wedding in 2011.

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Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

Supermodel and actor Rosie Huntington-Whiteley may look like she has it all, but that is only because she does! Besides starring in the fire-and-earth Mad Max: Fury Roadas one of the badass Immortan Joe's Wives fighting for her freedom with a prosthetic baby belly strapped to her midsection, she spends her time getting famous fashion photographers to dedicate entire books to her. She recently got engaged to Jason Statham, forming a power couple, the likes of which we haven't seen since John Krasinski and Emily Blunt.

FACT: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley grew up on a rural English farm.

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Julianne Moore

After grabbing an Oscar for Still Alice, Moore always lets us remember that she is the boss of her own destiny. She is also an accomplished children’s author whose books revolve around the titular character Freckleface Strawberry, for which she drew inspiration from her son's dislike of his own appearance. A badass mother who empowers the children of the world to love themselves? Yes, please.

FACT: Julianne Moore is known to read every script that lands on her desk.

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Kara Del Toro

Model Kara Del Toro jump-started her career with a super popular Instagram account, and has since been picked up by the likes of Guess and Beach Bunny swimwearand Surfing. Duringher work with the latter, Del Toro got to spend some time splashing around on a beautiful beach with giant feral pigs. She recently appeared in a spot for Carl’s Jr., promoting the chain’s new Tex Mex burger during a cross-border volleyball match. Spicy.

FACT: Raised in a small Texas town, Del Toro says that if it weren’t for her modeling career, she would have stayed put and worked as an elementary school teacher.

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Rebecca Grant

First getting her start on ESPN and Fox Sports, Grant has recently expanded her brand into music and fashion. She has also turned her passion towards those in need by designing for charity events, and has advocated for breast cancer research since losing her own mother to the disease. Besides running her own business and keeping her brand on point, Grant makes it a point to engage with her fans – an impressive 170K across platforms.

FACT: The Dungeon Siege III character Katarina is modeled on Grant.

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Lauren Sesselmann

This Olympic bronze medalist and soccer player has kept us all on our toes while racking up athletic achievements. Between having her own exercise DVD, Fit As A Pro, and representing Canada at FIFA, Sesselmann is seriously crushing it. Despite representing Canada's soccer team, she actually hails from Green Bay, Wyoming, and started playing soccer at the age of 12. After Canada's team was defeated at last year's FIFA Women's World Cup, she had strong words to counter her critics: “You can sit there and choose to focus on every negative and pick apart our team BUT you have NO IDEA how much passion, heart and hard work this team puts in."

FACT: Lauren Sesselmann attended Purdue University, where she set six (!!!) soccer records.

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Serena Williams

Where to even begin with this 34-year-old tennis superstar? In the past year, the world's best female tennis player slammed down body-shaming haters and appeared in Beyoncé's Lemonade. Besides English, Williams can converse in three other languages and has become a fashion icon for her work with Puma. Off court, she also works hard with her charity to provide relief to families affected by natural disasters.

FACT: Serena Williams has an eye-popping 89.8 winning percentage at the U.S. Open.

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Alison Brie

When she wasn’t making you laugh until you cried on Community or How to be Single, Alison Brie was slowly making a name for herself in the film and comedy industries. And when she wasn’t romancing Dave Franco (sorry, fellas), she was hard at work appearing in Mad Men and BoJack Horseman. She will be appearing alongside Zac Efron and James Franco in The Masterpiece later this year. But if you can't get enough of her now, check out Search Party, featuring Thomas Middleditch, and a whole lot of mayhem.

FACT: Alison Brie used to work as a clown at birthday parties.

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Emmy Rossum

Shameless’ Emmy Rossum has been putting in work on the hit Showtime program since 2011, but you may recognize her from The Day After Tomorrow or the film adaption of The Phantom of the Opera. When she isn’t busy being friends with Beyoncé, Rossum spends her time as a YouthAIDS ambassador and is a huge advocate for no-kill animal shelters and the LGBT community. She will appear in next year's Netflix's National Lampoon biopic about the series' co-creator.

FACT: Emmy Rossum was raised by her mother, and only met her father twice while growing up.

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Tina Fey

It's almost impossible to talk about modern television comedy without mentioning Tina Fey. Creator of both 30 Rock and, most recently, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Fey has become a household name. When she isn’t making us laugh, she is making the world a better place through her work with Autism Speaks and the Light the Night Walk.

FACT: Tina Fey is a massive Star Wars nerd and will throw a Star Wars reference into her writing whenever she can.

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Jaimie Alexander

You may recognize Alexander for her work in Marvel’s Thor and its subsequent 2013 and now 2017 sequels, or you may even recognize her from the NBC series Blindspot, but we can all agree she is a force to be reckoned with. Alexander has also appeared in everything from Kyle XY to Nurse Jackie, making her both versatile and captivating.

FACT: It takes a full seven hours to apply the makeup tattoos for Jaimie Alexander's role in Blindspot.

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Ivanka Trump

It would be easy to say Ivanka Trump was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. But Donald Trump's daughter always worked hard to earn her own money (starting with a modeling gig in her teens) and make a name for herself. The 34-year-old businesswoman and writer is currently the executive vice-president of development and acquisitions for the Trump Organization. She also helps run the Ivanka Trump lifestyle brand, which includes shoes, handbags, jewelry, and fragrances. In addition to being a mother of three and running a highly successful company, Trump loves to actively support political candidates.

FACT: The most recent season of Celebrity Apprentice, where Trump appeared alongside her brothers, had the highest ratings.

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Florence Faivre

This stunning French-Thai actress and model is best known for her role as kickass pilot Julie Mao on SyFy’s The Expanse, but you may also recognize her as an active Instagram presence: she boasts a large following and loves to interact with fans. She started hosting teen TV shows in Bangkok, Thailand at only 13 years old, modeled in Asia throughout her teens, and was nominated for Best Actress at The Bangkok International Film Festival. She scored her first role in the film The Siam Renaissance —a drama about her traveling back in time to Thailand's renaissance, uncovering its darkest secrets.

FACT: Florence Faivre lived in France until she was 8 and in Thailand until she was 19. She speaks fluent French, Thai and English.

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Zoe Saldana

Zoe Saldana is out of this world. No, literally. Besides appearing in the box-office smash Guardians of the Galaxy (and its upcoming sequel) and the rebooted Star Trek films, she also has the next three Avatar movies lined up. Basically, we'll be seeing Zoe Saldana kick ass in space every year until 2022. And when she isn’t a prepping for a massive blockbuster or gracing a red carpet with her presence, she's an active celebrity supporter of FINCA International, a microfinance organization.

FACT: Like many celebs, Saldana was once on Law & Order, making her screen debut in a 1999 episode.

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Gisele Bündchen

Last year, Forbesranked Bündchen’s collected worth at over $44 million dollars, which is no surprise given the fact that she's appeared on over 1,200 magazine covers. With nearly 500 runway shows under her belt, the Brazilian model is also an actor and producer. And when she isn’t in front of the camera or working on a video project, she spends her time as the Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Program.

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Doina Ciobanu

You may recognize Doina from her extremely successful lifestyle and travel blog, The Golden Diamonds, where she covers everything from tips on how to wear that poncho out to a work happy hour to travel guides with the best places to find the cheapest margaritas. It's clear people are looking to Doina for a better life — a whole 145,000 of them on Instagram, to be exact — but this never seems to get in the way of her highly successful modeling career. Between working with brands such as Fendi, Versace and Agent Provocateur and traveling across the world, she is also completing a bachelor's degree in political science and diplomacy.

FACT: Doina Ciobanu was born in Chisinau, Moldova.

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Jordana Brewster

Brazilian-American actress Jordana Brewster’s breakthrough role was as Mia Toretto in The Fast and the Furious, a part she reprised in multiple sequels. Lately, she’s been drawn to work on intrigue-laden TV shows, appearing last year in Secrets and Lies and this year in true crime anthology American Crime Story, which covers the O.J. Simpson trial.

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Cobie Smulders

Canadian actress and model Cobie Smulders played Robin Scherbatsky on How I Met Your Mother. At the age of 25, during filming, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. But she didn’t let that slow her down: Smulders continued in the role even as the cancer spread to her lymph nodes and she was forced to undergo multiple grueling surgeries. Today, she’s still going strong. Smulders appeared this year in comedy The Intervention, and is currently filming opposite Tom Cruise for Jack Reacher: Never Go Back.

FACT: Until she graduated high school, Smulders dreamed of being a marine biologist.

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Hilary Knight

Ice hockey phenom Hilary Knight has a fantastic collection of jewelry. As a forward for the USA Women’s Ice Hockey team, she’s picked up two silver Olympic medals and six gold World Championship medals. And her professional career? Well, that's been going pretty well, too. The former Canadian Women's Hockey League star moved to the brand-new National Women's Hockey League this past season before tearing it up, scoring nearly two points a game and helping the Boston Pride win the first-ever Isobel Cup. In a recent Red Bull feature, she was compared to hockey legend Wayne Gretzky for her skill and accomplishments.

FACT: In 2014, Knight took part in a full practice with the NHL's Anaheim Ducks.

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Olivia Munn

Getting her professional start in the Japanese fashion industry — she was largely raised on an American military base in Japan — Olivia Munn moved on to broadcast journalism before starting a career in acting. She’s proven to be versatile in that regard, co-hosting Attack of the Show and serving as a correspondent on The Daily Show, where she disproved critics who claimed she was just brought on as a sex symbol. Recently, she turned down a lead role in Deadpool, because she was sick of "being the girlfriend" and chose to appear this year in X-Men: Apocalypse as telekinetic ass-kicker Psylocke instead.

FACT: Olivia Munn had an indoor swing in her apartment in Prague, which once disconnected from the ceiling — leaving her with a dislocated shoulder.

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Amymarie Gaertner

She loves to dance, but she loves teaching others even more. Amymarie Gaertner became a YouTube star with her instructional dance videos, in which she teaches viewers how to cut a rug like a pro. Gaertner is also big on Instagram, with 1.5 million followers, and last year, she took charge of the Dancing With the Stars' Snapchat. But it’s with Vine that she’s really blown up, amassing more than 4 million followers. Who knew you could teach someone how to bust a move in six seconds or less?

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Amy Adams

Golden Globe–winning actress and singer Amy Adams played her highest-grossing role to date this year as Lois Lane in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. To date, she has appeared in over 40 feature films, and proven herself to be a versatile performer, appearing in light fare such as Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and The Muppets, as well as critically acclaimed thought-provokers such as Her and The Master. This year, she’ll appear in sci-fi drama Story of Your Life and thriller Nocturnal Animals. Is there anything she can't do?

FACT: Amy Adams is a trained singer. No wonder she sang her own parts in The Muppets, Enchanted and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.

Kendall Jenner

Even if you’re totally sick of hearing about the Kardashians, there’s no denying Kendall Jenner’s influence. Leveraging her fame as a model and online personality, she’s developed her own cosmetics brands and marketed them through limited edition, get-it-while-it’s-hot releases on her own personal app. Besides that, she’s now technically a sci-fi author, having collaborated with sister Kylie on the ghostwritten young adult opus Rebels:City of Indra. Jenner also sells her used clothes on eBay to raise money for those in need.

FACT: Kendall Jenner is 5'10'' — the tallest out of the four Kardashian sisters.

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Gina Carano

Before she played one onscreen, Gina Carano was paying the bills as a real-life badass. Her MMA career saw her beat down some of the most elite fighters in the Strikeforce and EliteXC leagues, using her intimidating Muay Thai skills, before she retired to pursue a career in acting. And while rumors of a bout with Ronda Rousey circulated in 2014, she’s stuck to her big-screen dreams, appearing in action flicks such as Haywire,Fast & Furious 6 and Deadpool.

FACT: In her first knockout by submission, Carano took down Tonya Evinger with a rear naked neck choke.

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Morena Baccarin

Morena Baccarin has filled roles in sci-fi pieces ranging from Firefly to Stargate SG-1 to Deadpool, and garnered primetime acclaim for her work in Homeland. Now the Brazilian-American actress has taken a regular gig in comic-books-for-grownups series Gotham, and will appear as an extra-terrestrial arch-enemy in this year’s animated horror epic Malevolent. If every geek in the world isn’t in love with Morena Baccarin yet, they will be soon.

FACT: This year, Baccarin gave birth to a daughter with her Gotham co-star Ben McKenzie.

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Emily Blunt

She’s a superstar, appearing regularly in films ranging from The Muppets to Looper. But when she was a teen — before she ever took on a real role — Emily Blunt suffered with stuttering. It’s a problem whose solution she attributes to having awesome, patient teachers. This just goes to show that even the most talented and well-respected artists have to take their knocks before they can make it big. This year, you can see her in the film adaptation of best-selling novel The Girl on the Train, while 2017 has her playing a voice role opposite husband John Krasinski in the animated film Animal Crackers.

FACT: While filming Edge of Tomorrow, Blunt almost killed Tom Cruise when she crashed their car into a tree. Luckily, nobody was seriously harmed.

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Naya Rivera

After her breakthrough success in the role of Santana Lopez in Glee, Naya Rivera explored pop music with her single “Sorry,” featuring Big Sean. But she also knows how to use her voice on the page. Rivera has dabbled in screenwriting, and says that if she weren’t acting, she’d prefer to be a writer. Her autobiography, Sorry Not Sorry: Dreams, Mistakes and Growing Up is set to be published by an imprint of Penguin Random House this year. She also devotes her time to raising funds for cancer research, the chronically and terminally ill, and GLAAD. You can catch up with her on Devious Maidson Lifetime, where she plays a maid who is in on some very troubling secrets...

FACT: Naya Rivera claims her oldest pair of jeans is from her freshman year in high school, and that she sometimes still wears them.

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Emilia Clarke

Emilia Clarke is one of our favorite characters on television as she’s crushing it as Daenerys Targaryan on the Game of Thronesand as Sarah Connor on last year's blockbuster Terminator Genisys. She was named as Esquire’s Sexiest Woman Alive in 2015 but there’s much more to her than just looks. The Mother of Dragons has won us over with her ambition, independence and gentle heart. Game of Thrones has killed off most of the characters we all love, but thankfully Daenerys Stormborn has survived. There will be a lot of broken hearts if the blade falls on her.

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Natalie Dormer

Game of Thrones mainstay Natalie Dormer had a royal reputation before she ever became a member of House Tyrell. Her prior role on The Tudors as Anne Boleyn — the short-lived 16th-century Queen of England — gained her widespread acclaim. And if dystopian sci-fi is more your thing, you know her as Cressida from The Hunger Games. This year, she’s set to star in too-real-for-fiction thriller Patient Zero, battling a mutant strain of rabies threatening humanity’s existence. Which sounds only a little less terrifying than being married to Joffrey.

FACT: Rumor has it that Dormer is related to Queen Mary I’s lady-in-waiting Jane Dormer. Sadly, there is no clear evidence to support this royal connection.

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Katie Nolan

Meet your new favorite player in sports media. Katie Nolan started off blogging in her off-hours as a bartender, and turned enough heads that she climbed the ladder to a FOX Sports 1 show, Garbage Time with Katie Nolan. Nolan’s no lightweight when it comes to heavy topics: Her commentary on the Ray Rice domestic abuse incident, as well as her blog post, “How to land a husband at the Masters,” gained her accolades from mainstream media outlets. Garbage Time with Katie Nolanjust won an Emmy.

FACT: Katie Nolan’s video about the Ray Rice incident was picked up by the New York Times.

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Kate Hudson

Kate Hudson knows how to keep busy. In addition to her wide-ranging acting career, she’s a co-founder of subscription shopping startup Fabletics, which went brick-and-mortar last year and is scheduled to open 75 to 100 stores in 2016. And this fall, she’ll star in Deepwater Horizon, which tells the story of one of our era’s greatest environmental disasters — a giant oil spill caused by a giant explosion on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

FACT: Kate Hudson can’t stand watching herself onscreen, noting that doing so makes her break out in a cold sweat.

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Reese Witherspoon

When acclaimed actress Reese Witherspoon got fed up with the gender wage gap in Hollywood, she didn’t stand idly by. She launched her own production company, Pacific Standard, partly funded out of her own pocket, that scoops up the rights to novels with strong female protagonists. She’s managed to turn books such as Gone Girl and Wild into blockbuster films, and will star in her own HBO adaptation of the novel Big Little Lies in 2017.

FACT: Reese Witherspoon majored in English Literature at Stanford.

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Andrea Feczko

Graduating from New York University with a degree in broadcast journalism, Andrea Feczko dove head-first into the entertainment industry when her YouTube parody videos went viral. Her hilarious portrayal as Kesha is the most-viewed parody of all time on YouTube. Due to that success, she created her own YouTube channel called How2Travelers, and was plucked from the internet to host HLN's Vacation Chasers. Currently, she's racking up the air miles for TV Land's 100 Best Placesseries. But don’t worry (mom), Andrea didn't let her degree go to waste. She pitched, produced, and filmed a piece on Japan's "War on Dance” for VICE.

FACT: Andrea Feczko was the first member of her family to travel internationally at the age of 14.

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Melissa Benoist

Melissa Benoist wears an ‘S’ on her chest these days, portraying the role of Supergirl on the CBS drama. Don’t act like you haven’t daydreamed of her saving you from peril. The trajectory for her career is clearly pointing upward as she’s had a role in a number of hits. From Glee to Homeland to Whiplash, her star is going to shine brightly for some time to come. She is set to star next month alongside Eva Longoria in Low Riders.

FACT: Despite being Supergirl on screen, Benoist isn’t impervious to needles, which explains her three tattoos — a wolf, a feather and a bicycle.

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Cara Delevingne

Cara Delevingne’s eyebrows are just straight winning. Many supermodels — or women — would be mocked for bushy brows, but they’re her famous feature. While they’ve helped her garner attention as a model — she’s a British Fashion Awards “Model Of The Year” — she’s proven to be much more than just eye candy. She’s made a successful crossover from modeling to motion pictures, and we’re excited to see her kick ass as Enchantress in Suicide Squad, one of the five movies she’s working on this year, after her huge success in Paper Towns last year.

FACT: Cara Delevingne has a knack for video games — apparently, her favorite game is Call of Duty. We wonder which one.

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Simone Giertz

Before Simone landed her lucrative career building and testing robots as a professional YouTuber, she held positions as an MMA sports journalist, inventor and robotics fanatic. Giertz is currently part of the Tested.com team with Mythbusters’ Adam Savage, and her celebrated YouTube channel has over 155,000 subscribers. Some of her finest inventions involve a breakfast machine, a lipstick robot, a chopping machine, and a robot that wakes you up. Giertz builds the kinds of robots and machines most people only dream about and has added a whole new level of creativity to a field that’s typically reserved for only the most boring kinds of people.

FACT: One of Giertz's most famous inventions is an alarm clock that slaps you in the face to wake you up.

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Misty Copeland

It’s rare that ballet dancers make their way into the limelight, but that’s exactly what Misty Copeland has done. The 5’2” dancer became first African-American woman to hold the title of principal dancer in the American Ballet Theatre's 75-year history, blazing the way for women of color who’ve been snubbed in the past. Copeland also appeared in a documentary about her life, A Ballerina's Tale, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival. She has not only shattered stereotypes and become a role model for women around the world, she has redefined what it means to be a ballet dancer in 2016. This year, a Barbie doll with a "ballerina body" modeled after Copeland's, will appear on store shelves.

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Blake Lively

Gossip Girl’s good girl has come a long way. Lively’s gone from playing the apprehensive girl next door to an actress that continues to add more depth and impress, including in last year’s Age of Adaline. She’s even part of a Woody Allen flick (Café Society) hitting the big screen later this year. And did you know she’s a master baker? She even held it down as pastry chef for a night at Per Se, a three-Michelin Star restaurant in New York.

FACT: Blake Lively was cheerleader and class president as well as performing in a nationally competing show choir in high school.

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Kate Upton

Kate Upton’s come a long way to become the household name she is now. She appeared on the 100th anniversary of Vanity Fair, has been named “sexiest woman alive” for a multitude of different websites and magazines, and recently landed a $40 million ad campaign for the mobile app Game of War: Fire Age. She gallantly shook off CelebGate and continues to crush it as a model, actress, and occasional guest co-host for Live! with Kelly and Michael. Plus, she can rock a workout like no other celeb, in our opinion.

FACT: According to her friends, Upton never had a high school boyfriend.

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Alexandra Daddario

Despite the fact that her first role was simply credited as “Pretty Girl” in 2005’s The Squid and The Whale, Alexandra Daddario has made a name for herself by having guest roles in such series as True Detective, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, and American Horror Story: Hotel. The Manhattan native has always had an interest in acting, declaring she’d be an actress at age 11 and graduating from Brearley School and the Professional Children's School. Her latest role as Blake Gaines in San Andreas garnered critical acclaim and every man and woman is excited to see her as Summer Quinn in Baywatch.

FACT: Alexandra Daddario's father is a counter-terrorism expert.

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Miesha Tate

MMA fighter Miesha Tate is coming back for Ronda Rousey. One of the 29-year-old’s nicknames is “Cupcake,” giving the impression that there’s a sweet side to the 5’6” fighter. She’s modeled in ESPN The Magazine and Fitness Gurls, and uses wrestling, jiu-jitsu, and submission defense as her signature moves. It goes without saying that you wouldn’t want to run into Miesha “Cupcake” Tate in a dark alley — to put things into perspective, her other nickname is “Takedown.” As in, she will take you down. Miesha Tate successfully took down Holly Holm, and took in first place earlier this year at UFC 196. She will be defending the crown for the Bantamweight Women's class in July and we can't wait to see what happens.

FACT: Many credit Tate as being the key factor in the creation of the women's divisions in the UFC.

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Michelle Obama

Michelle Obama has become a household name thanks to the way she’s so eloquently handled holding the position of First Lady in the United States. Her never-ending fight against childhood obesity, Let’s Move!, is nothing short of motivational and she continually supports military families, members, and veterans with Joining Forces. Her unwavering fight for all women has become a focal point in her career, specifically with Let Girls Learn, and she can dance pretty damn well, too. Before she was the first lady, Michelle was a lawyer and a public servant… but she likes to call herself a mother above everything else.

FACT: Michelle Obama would be the tallest First Lady ever at 5'11, if it weren't for Eleanor Roosevelt, who was only a couple of inches taller.

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Brie Larson

Brie Larson has had one hell of a good year. First and foremost, she is now known as “Academy Award winner, Brie Larson” thanks to her work in the critically acclaimed film Room. However, that’s far from her first film; the 26-year-old actress has been steadily working every single year since 1998 and has still had time to manage a singing career. The success of Room hasn’t slowed her propulsion in the movie world, as she’s slated to appear in Kong: Skull Island in 2017. Oscar or not, we’ll always remember her as Envy Adams from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

FACT: Brie Larson had her TV debut on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno at age 7, doing a joke commercial for "Malibu Mudslide Barbie" in 1996.

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Gigi Hadid

Chances are, any publication you name has been graced with Gigi Hadid’s face. She was named one of the 12 rookies in Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue in 2014 and she hasn’t stopped from there. Gigi has taken to acting in and directing videos for artists along the likes of Calvin Harris, Taylor Swift, DNCE, and Zayn. Still, her highly successful modeling career (including her Victoria's Secret gig) has nothing on her ability to throw an absolutely killer birthday bash — as proven by her most recent birthday party… but what do you expect when you stroll in with Kendall Jenner.

FACT: Gigi Hadid is of Dutch and Palestinian ancestry.

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Dakota Johnson

She got international recognition for her breakthrough role in Fifty Shades of Grey, and she’s signed on for its sequels. But there’s more to Dakota Johnson than big-screen erotica. Last year, she was critically acclaimed for her roles in Black Mass and A Bigger Splash, grabbing a BAFTA Rising Star Award nomination in the process. And if you can't just get enough of her, check out How To Be Single in which she tears up the single life alongside Rebel Wilson and Alison Brie.

FACT: Dakota Johnson had to go through 20 screen tests with 20 different actors before the studio settled on Jamie Dornan for Fifty Shades of Grey.

Lupita Nyong’o

Kenyan-Mexican Academy-Award winner and film director Lupita Nyong’o is winning hearts and minds for both her acting and her charitable work. Her Star Wars role in The Force Awakens will be continued in 2017’s as-yet-unnamed Episode VIII. And in 2015, she got rave reviews for her Broadway debut in Eclipsed. Meanwhile, Nyong’o has declared her intention to protect Kenya’s elephants in association with WildAid, and is involved with Mother Health International, which helps pregnant women with their deliveries in regions decimated by war.

FACT: Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey inspired Nyong'o to pursue a career in acting.

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Gillian Anderson

You definitely recognize her as Agent Scully — especially given this year’s brief X-Files relaunch — and possibly recognize her as Stella Gibson from BBC's crime drama The Fall. But offscreen, English-American actress Gillian Anderson tears up the stage. She’s received tons of acclaim and multiple awards, and 2016 has her reprising her role as Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire. When she isn’t doing that, she’s helping fund schools in Uganda and acting as a PETA spokesperson.

FACT: When she was first cast as Scully in TheX-Files, Anderson told the directors she was 27. She was actually 24.

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Ellen Page

After her big break in Juno, Canadian actressEllen Page took time off from mainstream cinema to focus on indie productions and navigate the delicate personal process of coming out. This year she’s co-hosting Gaycationon the brand-spanking-new Viceland network, in which she and her BFF Ian Daniel travel the world exploring LGBT communities — their challenges, their victories and their individual local quirks. Later this year, Page will lend her voice to animated feature film Window Horses.

FACT: Ellen Page spent time living on an eco-settlement in Oregon, studying back-to-the-land, “freegan” philosophy.

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Jennifer Lawrence

Last year saw Jennifer Lawrence recognized by Forbes as the highest-paid actress of 2015 — earning $52 million — and by Guinness World Records for playing the highest-grossing action heroine in history, Katniss Everdeen. Lawrence seems to be universally adored, and no wonder: Behind huge achievements and obvious skill is someone who, in her interactions with the media, isn’t afraid to be alternately dorky and profane. YouTubers feverishly put together compilations of her goofy laugh, and Entertainment Weeklyclaims she “swears like a sailor.” This year, she’ll appear opposite Chris Pratt in the stranded-in-space sci-fi flick Passengers and as Mystique in the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse.

FACT: Jennifer Lawrence has zero formal training as an actor — she didn’t even take drama in high school.

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Ali Spagnola

Left-field musician and visual artist Ali Spagnola is an expert at going viral. She started gaining attention for doing a painting a day for anyone who requested it — and sending it their way for free. After that, her Power Hour Drinking Gameproject turned the "60 shots of beer" challenge into a 60-track album, distributed on a USB stick embedded in a shot glass. Lately, she's been releasing a one-minute song every seven days, summarizing the week’s most-Googled news.

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Selena Gomez

After releasing her sophomore album Revival at No. 1 on the charts last year, and playing a hilarious scene as herself in The Big Short, Selena Gomez doesn’t show any signs of taking a break. Now touring in support of the new record, she’s also scheduled to appear in three major upcoming feature films, including The Fundamentals of Caring opposite Paul Rudd. Gomez is also signed on to executive produce her first series for Netflix, 13 Reasons Why.

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Scarlett Johansson

Between playing a recurring role as Black Widow in the Marvel Universe — she’s on-screen now in Captain America: Civil War later this year — and recording with her new band The Singles, Scarlett Johansson is scheduled to star in and executive produce an eight-episode TV adaptation of Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country. And 2017 will see her taking on a controversial role in the live action adaptation of Ghost in the Shell.

Caity Lotz

Best known for her role in DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Lotz’s resume is stacked higher than Beyoncé’s bank account. She's appeared in Arrow, Mad Men, MTV's Death Valley, Planet B-boy, The Pact just to name a few. In addition to being an actor, the 29-year-old is a model, singer, dancer, and a martial artist. Did we mention that her favorite pizza is pineapple?

FACT: Caity Lotz once worked as a backup dancer for Lady Gaga and Avril Lavigne. She also used to be in a girl group called "Soccx."

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Sophie Turner

As Sansa Stark from Game of Thrones, English actress Sophie Turner has carried her character through a long dramatic arc — from pouty princess to victimized young noblewoman bent on revenge — with a maturity that belies her age. And the future holds exciting things for her on the big screen: She’ll play a teenaged Jean Grey in X-Men: Apocalypse, and is scheduled to appear as Frankenstein’s creator Mary Shelley in Mary Shelley’s Monster.

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Katherine McNamara

She played a number of roles in films and movies targeted at kids and young adults before seeing her big onscreen breakthrough with the Maze Runner franchise. Now Katherine McNamara has a lead role on Shadowhunters, a fantasy series based on best-selling book series The Mortal Instruments. And it looks like her career is speeding up: McNamara is connected to three feature films this year, including Is That a Gun in Your Pocket?, a look at American firearm culture.

FACT: Katherine McNamara graduated from high school at age 14, and got her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Drexel University when she was 17.

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Jackie Perez

CrossFit queen Jackie Perez started out as a high school sports addict before getting her Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology and entering a career as a personal trainer. She liked working out and teaching people how to work out, but hated that it wasn’t competitive — or painful or brutally difficult — enough. Hence her entry into the world of CrossFit. Today, she has a huge Instagram following among the fitness-obsessed, competes internationally, and can probably back squat your bodyweight like 40 times in a row.

FACT: Jackie Perez can clean and jerk 165 pounds.

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Amy Schumer

There's no question 2015 was a big year for Amy Schumer. She made TIME’s 100 Most Influential List and Barbara Walters named her one of the year’s 10 Most Fascinating People — Bono even wanted to send her fight ISIS. She also hosted the MTV Movie Awards, opened for Madonna’s live show, and wrote and starred in Trainwreck, directed by Judd Apatow. She isn’t slowing down: She just kicked off the fourth season of her Emmy-winning comedy show, Inside Amy Schumer; next year she'll take on dramatic role in Thank You for Your Service, a filmabout U.S. Armed Forces vets and their struggles with PTSD.

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Gal Gadot

Israeli actress and model Gal Gadot began studying law in college, but was soon drawn into the world of film. She won the 2004 Miss Israel title before making her film debut in Fast & Furious. The breakout role soon led to more parts, and nowadays she fills the onscreen shoes of Wonder Woman in the DC Universe, appearing this year in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Come 2017, she’ll take on the lead role in the Wonder Woman movie, as well as Justice League.

FACT: Beating up bad guys comes naturally to Gadot. She served two years as an enlisted soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces, acting as a combat instructor.

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Alicia Vikander

Swedish dancer and actress Alicia Vikander gained widespread recognition for her role as a humanoid robot in 2015’s Ex Machina and portrait artist in The Danish Girl. This year, she’s attached to three different projects, including Jason Bourne, and she’s set to appear in the Wim Wenders romantic thriller Submergence. While she’s a full-time actress now, Vikander got her start in ballet at the age of 9, serving as principal dancer in a Swedish ballet school and traveling around the world on the strength of her abilities. We can't wait to see what she has in store for us as in the upcoming Tomb Raider reboot as Lara Croft.

Emma Watson

Emma Watson, the English model and actress has spent a lot of her time recently fighting for women’s rights, speaking about gender equality in front of the World Economic Forum and representing the UN Women campaign HeForShe. She recently endorsed an app called OMGYES that is a “modern, hands-on exploration of women’s sexual pleasure,” educating men on the female body, while tearing down archaic walls in the process. And though her name appeared in the Panama Papers, she wasn't tax dodging — simply trying to protect her privacy. Next year, she'll star in Disney’s live-action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, but will first take some time off to focus on activism and charity work.

FACT: Emma Watson is a certified yoga and meditation instructor.

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Emily Ratajkowski

Emily Ratajkowski is a model and actress on the rise. She first hit the big-time with a starring role in a controversial music video, and that’s when things started to take off. There were the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues (2014, 2015), a role in the mega hit Gone Girl, another in the Entourage movie, and her first professional modeling runway debut in 2015. She recently visited Capitol Hill to advocate for arts education at the White House's Correspondents' Dinner alongside Rosario Dawson, with the intent of exposing the overwhelming patriarchal sentiment in Hollywood entertainment.

FACT: This winter, Ratajkowski got her politics on, speaking at a rally for Bernie Sanders.

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Ronda Rousey

She may have lost per position as women’s bantamweight champ in her bout with Holly Holm last year, but that didn’t stop Ronda Rousey from being named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People of 2016. She even had Tina Fey pen her homage for the list. Besides, a loss to Holly Holm doesn't erase her amazing track record of near countless under-60-second knockouts. There's no question she played a major role in the rise of popular interest in female fighters in the UFC in 2015. She has practically become the face of mixed martial arts in the last couple of years, and won't be giving up any time soon. Rumors attach her to a future screen adaptation of her autobiography My Fight/Your Fight.

FACT: Ronda Rousey loves World of Warcraft, preferring to play as a Night Elf hunter. She used to moderate a Pokemon message board and was obsessed with Dragon Ball Z.

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Alex Morgan

She helped bring home the trophy for the US Women’s National Team at the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup playing in every single Final game. But Alex Morgan is kicking ass off the grass as well. Her young adult soccer series, The Kicks, is being published by Simon & Schuster; the first book debuted at No. 7 on the New York Times Bestseller list for youths, and Amazon has bought the rights for a TV show. And last year, she was one of the first female athletes to appear on the cover of a FIFA video game, putting an end to a male-dominated FIFA franchise, and thus becoming a role model for women around the world.

FACT: Alex Morgan’s nickname among teammates when she played for the U.S. Women’s National Team was “Baby Horse,” because she was young, fast and ran kind of like a horse. Good luck picturing what that looks like.

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Xenia Tchoumi

A true Renaissance woman, Xenia Tchoumi started modeling at the age of 12. The Swiss-Italian powerhouse (with Russian origins) also interned at a number of financial organizations, including Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan Chase, before turning down job offers to set out on her own as an entrepreneur. Today, in addition to modeling and being a fashion influencer, she has appeared in a number of films, writes magazine columns and blog posts, and is in high demand as a public speaker, and has amassed an impressive 4.4 million followers on Facebook and 780,000 on Instagram in the process.

FACT: In 2015, she changed her name from Xenia Tchoumitcheva to Xenia Tchoumi, so it would be easier for an international audience to pronounce.

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Rihanna

Her 2016 album, ANTI, went platinum, her tour in support of it was a huge success, and it seems impossible to tune into either mainstream or social media without seeing, hearing or sensing the incorporeal presence of Rihanna. No word yet on new music, but she collaborated with Calvin Harris on the song "This Is What You Came For" and next year she’s due to appear in the Luc Besson sci-fi flick Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. The 28-year-old Barbadian style icon is also Puma's creative director, and she debuted her Fenty x Puma collaboration at the 2016 New York Fashion Week (where sisters Bella and Gigi Hadid closed the show).

FACT: In 2009, Rihanna was “effectively bankrupt.” Today, her net worth is $160 million. How did she do it? Lots of work work work work work.

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Margot Robbie

Australian actress Margot Robbie got her start in low-budget Ozzie thrillers, but the last few years have seen her break into the mainstream. She starred in Wolf of Wall Street and was in The Big Short, and will appear this year as Harley Quinn in the highly anticipated Suicide Squad. She’ll also be starring alongside Tina Fey on the based-on-a-book war-zone dramedy Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, and play Jane in Tarzan. No word yet on whether it’s Robbie or her stunt double who will be swinging on vines. But the fact is, you're gonna be seeing a whole lot more of her this year.

FACT: During her audition for Wolf of Wall Street, Robbie impulsively slapped Leonardo DiCaprio across the face. Apparently, he thought it was great, and it got her the role. She also punched Alexander Skarsgård during a sex scene while filming Tarzan.

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Kim Kardashian

Love her or hate her, Kim Kardashian is never far from the headlines, all the while building a whole media empire on the back of her backside. Yes, detractors allege that she’s only famous because of the infamous leaked sex tape. But rather than let it ruin her life, she embraced the notoriety, turned up her ambition to 11, and maneuvered her way to being one of the world’s most famous and influential women. She may not have cured cancer, but who in Hollywood has? She breaks the internet every time she posts a selfie; her TV show is now in its 12th season, and her recent Kimoji emoji extension proved that Kim Kardashian: Hollywood wasn’t the end of her app-store reign.

FACT: Before becoming famous, Kim Kardashian ran a business revamping the closets of celebrities.

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Taylor Swift

It’s crazy to think that Taylor Swift was once just a teenage country music singer with an acoustic guitar. Thanks to a combination of ambition, talent, and her expertly maintained relationship with her fans (she might be the best in the biz when it comes to giving back to them), she’s installed herself as a mainstay in the pop music hierarchy — all the while growing up in the spotlight with admirable poise and keeping her image squeaky clean. After dropping the chart-topping 1989 last year, she also brought home three Grammys, giving her a whopping 10 at just 26 years of age. With her "Bad Blood" video last year she showed the world she's capable of uniting powerful women from all over. Up next? At this rate, we assume she'll be running against Kanye for president in 2020.

FACT: It’s no wonder rhyming comes naturally to her, since as a child, Swift’s favorite authors were Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein.

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Adele

Adele is a rarity in modern pop music, an old-school chanteuse who exists outside of the two-year album cycle, shilling for makeup brands and getting crunk in nightclubs. She’s not here to tour relentlessly to keep her stardom afloat, either; she knows the sheer power of her voice can do that for her. And she’s right: her nostalgic-for-an-ex smash hit, “Hello,” dropped on the charts like a hydrogen bomb of pure emotion, and her first album in nearly half a decade, 25, dominated sales in late 2015, going Platinum eight times over. Wait for her to clean up at next year’s Grammys after juuust barely missing the cutoff for this year’s.

FACT: Adele's album 21 reached No. 1 on the charts in 26 countries.

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Holly Holm

UFC bantamweight fighter Holly Holm gained notoriety for ending Ronda Rousey’s career-long winning streak last November. Before that, she was a world champion female boxer, defending her title 18 times across three weight divisions. Holm is the first athlete ever to win champion status in both boxing and mixed martial arts. And she's not planning on slowing down any time soon. In a recent interview with AskMen, she told us: "I just want to keep improving. I don’t want this to be the only good performance of my life. I want to keep improving and showing more of what I’m capable of."

FACT: After a fight in Vegas, Holm attended a VIP party that turned out to be hosted by Jay Z and Beyoncé. She was completely freaked out.

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Priyanka Chopra

Priyanka Chopra has been a household name in India for a long time now, and she hit the ground running when she made her U.S. debut in the ABC drama Quantico last year. As one of the most successful Bollywood actresses of all time, her star power in Asia is without question. But Chopra's philanthropic endeavors have also helped shape the world around her wherever she’s gone. She's been a huge advocate of female empowerment and education for girls, has spoken out against infanticide, and has worked with UNICEF as a Goodwill Ambassador since 2008. She’s even founded her own foundation called "The Priyanka Chopra Foundation for Health and Education" and has supported local initiatives to clean neighborhoods of Mumbai.

With upcoming roles in several high-profile Hollywood films, we’re calling it now: Priyanka is set to win over the world. Her influence and power transcends borders — whether geographical or political — and we can't wait to see what she has lined up next.

FACT: Priyanka Chopra had her own column in the Hindustan Times, penning over 50 opinion pieces for the publication.

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Ashley Graham

Long before 2016, when she became the first plus-sized model to appear on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, Ashley Graham had made a name for herself by modeling for the likes of Lane Bryant, Levi’s and Target. She also designed her own line of curves-embracing lingerie for Addition Elle and launched a nail polish collaboration with Formula X. Graham isn’t only changing mainstream ideals of beauty through her modeling work, she's also leading in the body-positive conversation with her #BeautyBeyondSize platform, which encourages healthy eating and lifestyle habits — for the sake of having a long, healthy life, rather than becoming a size zero.

FACT: When Graham’s SI cover debuted, she tweeted "This cover is for every woman who ever felt like she wasn't beautiful enough."

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Beyoncé

In a business that always seems to be looking for a hot new star to replace the old guard, Beyoncé is a real exception to the rule. The one they call Queen Bey has been around forever, but somehow still manages to keep taking things up a notch with each new album. Her February 2016 alone would have qualified her for inclusion on this list: She dropped a single, "Formation," the video for which ignited a firestorm of controversy, played the Super Bowl halftime show, and in a single week sold more than a million tickets for a tour to support an album that no one had heard yet.

She made good on her promise with the release of Lemonade, an ambitious, aggressive and powerful visual album about her marriage, which earned rave reviews, broke sales records (it marked the first time a female artist had 12 songs in the Billboard Hot Top 100 chart simultaneously, while garnering a bonkers 115 million on-demand audio streams in its first week), boosted use of the lemon emoji tenfold in a single day, and kickstarted a web-wide conversation about infidelity in relationships. Still not convinced? Fine. We challenge you to find someone who looks that good beating the crap out of a car with a baseball bat.

FACT: Beyoncé has never commented on the true identity of "Becky with the good hair."

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Daisy Ridley

For centuries — no, millennia — men have been the heroes of our species' stories. But Ridley's star-making turn as the Force-adept Rey in The Force Awakens suggests the future might be a little more unisex than the past. Ridley's Rey not only kicks ass (then brings them back to theater seats for repeat viewings) but will inspire legions of young women to crush it for a long, long time. Here is a heroine who doesn’t need to be rescued, who doesn’t need to wear a skirt, who doesn’t need a love interest. How’s that for a new hope?

Maybe it’s because she was cast as an unknown, but one of the things that makes Ridley stand out is the lack of the usual Hollywood façade. Deflector shields are down (at least for now) and what we see are all the things that made the character of Rey so popular — a candid, sincere, brave and unapologetically positive young woman.

She’s also tough as a Rathtar — Ridley’s Instagram videos prove she’s as handy with a kettlebell as she is with a lightsaber — and she’s using her powers for good, speaking up on everything from body image to the importance of voting.

Call her lucky if you want, but as Obi Wan Kenobi once said, "in my experience, there’s no such thing as luck."

FACT: Daisy Ridley cried when she first saw the initial trailer for Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens.